He's gone?
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: Kinda sad, but I've made a choice never to write a sad story without a happy ending. Dedicated to Robert Stack, who died May 14, 2003.


He's gone?  
  
This story is dedicated to the death of Robert Stack, voice of Stoat Muldoon.  
  
Notes: I've taken the liberty of giving Ronald a last name: "Akamu". I looked up the meaning of the name "Ronald", and found out it meant "Messenger to the King." "Akamu" means "Of the Red Earth". So, Ronald's full name now means "Messenger to the King of the Red Earth." Pretty, huh? The "S" in "Maxwell S. Hammer" stands for "silver", so his full name is "Maxwell Silver Hammer". Any Beatles fan would know this one. How I love putting meanings behind the names!  
  
The Martians and kids were just sitting around Zapz one day, completely out of ideas of what to do. Lilly was.... somewhere. She had made herself invisible again. Angela sat on a recently unsurfaced sofa Lilly had found with the piano, which 2-T idlely played with. Dog sat with 2-T, who it basically considered its master. Mike sat with her on the sofa, still weary from his recent poisoning. Cedric sat on the cold, tile floor, bouncing a rubber ball. B-Bop flipped through a few websites, looking for a musical instrument he might want to learn to play. Do-Wah absentmindedly plucked the middle string on his guitar, not knowing what to play.  
  
"So, now what?" Angela mumbled.  
  
"I dunno," Mike answered.  
  
"Let's watch tv," Cedric said boringly.  
  
"Better than nothing," 2-T monotoned from his piano. "Dog, tv."  
  
Dog flipped on the tv with his paw. The local news, with Maxwell S. Hammer, flashed onto the screen, and relayed a message that would change the lives of the viewers forever.  
  
"Local alien hunter, Stoat Muldoon, died today."  
  
"WHAT?!" Everyone, even Lilly (who had appeared on top of 2-T's piano), rushed in front of the tv set.  
  
"Muldoon, age 47, died of various trample wounds of unknown origin. He, and a Dr. Brady Hacksaw, were discovered by Muldoon's intern, Ronald Akamu."  
  
Ronald's face, wet with tears, popped onto the screen. He was not wearing his Quantum Burger beanie; he was holding it above his heart as a sign of respect.  
  
"When I got there," Ronald sobbed. "He was... all bloody, and mangled... but-but he was alive... but by th-the time.. the hospital got here... it was too late."  
  
The camera switched back to Maxwell Hammer before Ronald broke down. "Stoat Muldoon had a show, 'Stoat Muldoon: Alien Hunter', which would have made it to worldwide broadcast if not for his tragic and mysterious death. He was survived by his mother and his girlfriend, who is currently residing in Michigan. Hacksaw is in critical condition, but doctors expect he will pull through. I'm Maxwell S. Hammer, and that is the news for today."  
  
As the television screen switched off, a sense of hurt, shock, fear, and nausea swept through Zapz.  
  
"Oh no," 2-T whispered. "Did we...?"  
  
"Uh huh," Do-Wah did all he could to prevent himself from crying. "We caused that stampede."  
  
"No..." Angela gasped, holding her hands to her face. "Oh no...."  
  
"How could I?" Lilly moaned, sinking down to the floor. "I knew that those aliens were desperate for freedom. Why did I let that happen?"  
  
"It wasn't your fault," B-Bop comforted, laying a hand on her shoulder. He wasn't really comforting her, as much as he was comforting himself.  
  
"YES IT WAS!" Lilly shouted, scaring everyone. "I knew that stampede would happen! I just assumed that the plan would work out as I expected! I should have known better! This wasn't supposed to happen!" Lilly curled herself into a little ball, burying her face into her knees. "This wasn't supposed to happen... this wasn't supposed to happen..."  
  
Lilly was making little sense, but that didn't matter quite at the moment. Everyone was torn apart by the death, no one seemed to care.  
  
"And he was such a great guy, too," Mike remembered aloud.  
  
"He helped Angela when Chitzok captured her," Cedric voiced.  
  
"He tried to," B-Bop sighed. "He was a big help there."  
  
"And the Doomrace fiasco," 2-T raised his hand. "Remember, he held that Drone Weapon Ship at bay!"  
  
"That helped?" Do-Wah naively asked.  
  
"I think so," 2-T scratched his head. "In fact, if he hadn't let the KooFoo loose, the planet probably wouldn't be here right now!"  
  
"He was more help than I realized!" Mike smiled.  
  
"And he was funny!" Do-Wah pointed out. "Even if he did have a habit of calling us 'Evil Alien Scum'."  
  
Angela snickered, earning a dirty look from the Martians. "That was kinda funny. What about his crazy metaphors!" Angela put on her best serious face and a ridiculous Muldoon voice. "It's no use, we're locked in tighter that the skin on a hot dog."  
  
Everyone giggled.  
  
"Oo, and remember!" B-Bop piped. "Remember, 'But once this is over, I'll be all over you like mold on stinky cheese'? Remember that one?"  
  
Cedric laughed out loud, while everyone else what a little restrained with there laughter. "And he was nice, too! Remember how he was so... so..."  
  
"Adament," Lilly stated, as if she knew what he was going to say.  
  
"Adament! Right! How he was so adament about disecting Atreyu?" Cedric mentioned.  
  
"He didn't wanna hurt the Nichip, either," 2-T remembered.  
  
"It's called a 'Nichip'? I thought it was called a 'Chibit'." Cedric laid his face in his palm.  
  
"He was nice to Ronald," Lilly grumbled.  
  
"He was more than willing to risk his life to keep us safe," Angela said softly.  
  
"There was really nothing wrong with him being an Alien Hunter," Mike voiced. "Now that I think about it, he was just trying to keep his home safe from harm."  
  
"To make sure we all had a better life," Do-Wah's voice started to break.  
  
"And we took it from 'im," B-Bop was close to crying now; you could see the tears welling up in his eyes.  
  
And Lilly, all this time, tightening her little ball self tighter and tighter until...  
  
"THAT IS IT!" Lilly screamed, rising into the air a couple of feet. "Muldoon did not deserve to die! It is not his time yet! Martians, humans, come with me! We're going to the Hospital!"  
  
***  
  
Ronald slept faithfully in the chair next to Muldoon's bed. The less-than- superior hospital staff hadn't bothered to take him to the morgue yet, but Ronald was secretly happy about this. Muldoon was like a father to him. He wanted to stay for as long as he could.  
  
He jumped as the door suddenly burst open, letting four kids and three aliens into the medium sized room.  
  
"AH!" Ronald screamed. "Aliens! What do you want with my hero, you brazen invading scum!?"  
  
"Be quiet, lower being!" Lilly angrily shouted, tears running down her face. She pushed the kids behind her. "We're here on business. Now step aside."  
  
"Do we have to be in here?" Cedric asked with a cracking voice. The sheet covering Muldoon's corpse was sunken in in places, obviously from the leftover footprints. One particular hoofprint (uncovered, just above his collarbone) was incredibly small and deep; it looked more like a bullet hole that a hoofprint. Cedric felt him stomach do a couple of flips. 2-T and B-Bop weren't looking too good, either; the color had drained out of their faces.  
  
"Yes, Cedric," Lilly snapped. She hovered directly above Muldoon's bed, sticking her arms out like she was trying to balance.  
  
"What are you doing?!" Ronald screeched.  
  
"It will be incredibly obvious in a minute, now be quiet," Lilly growled. She then spoke telepathically. 'You're disrupting my concentration.'  
  
Lilly shut her eyes and breathed deeply. She hovered there for a second, and nothing seemed to be happening, until...  
  
Some of the sunken patches started filling in, his outline becoming more full. The one hole is his chest seemed to magically mend itself until there wasn't even a scratch.  
  
/He took a breath of air./  
  
"AH!"  
  
Everyone quickly backed as far away from the hospital bed as they could. Muldoon rose to a sitting-up position.  
  
"Ah." he moaned, his voice sounding a bit off kilter. "Where am I?"  
  
"You're in the hospital," Lilly took down her hands and folded them in front of her chest. She opened her eyes, but she still hovered above the bed.  
  
"Hospital?" Muldoon was completely out of it.  
  
Lilly bowed hurriedly. "Oh, Mister Muldoon, I am so-"  
  
"We are SO sorry, Mister Muldoon," B-Bop interrupted, walking up and placing his hand on Muldoon's. "We caused the stampede, and you got trampled, and-"  
  
"YOU WERE DEAD FIVE SECONDS AGO!" Ronald yelped.  
  
"I was?" Muldoon shook his cranium violently. He then smiled. "Oh! Oh, yes, yes. I was dead, wasn't I?"  
  
"We are so sorry, Mister Muldoon!" Angela called from the wall (hey, that ryhmed! Neato!).  
  
"It'll never happen again, Mister Muldoon!" Do-Wah joined B-Bop, leaning his body weight on the bed's guardrail.  
  
"You can count on that, Mister Muldoon!" Lilly bowed again. "We are so sorry."  
  
"Well, em. um." Stoat rubbed his forehead again; this time, he was blushing. "Well, thank you, young children and their evil, yet apologetic, alien friends."  
  
"Well, it's an improvement," B-Bop whispered to Do-Wah, who chuckled.  
  
"I have one question though," Muldoon raised in finger in a 'wait-a-minute' jesture. Ronald came back to his beside, followed by 2-T, Angela, and Mike. Cedric still hung back, a little nervous about touching a previously dead person. "That eagle that Hacksaw was so determined on disecting? Did he make it out okay?"  
  
"Good as gold, Mister Muldoon," Mike smiled.  
  
Muldoon leaned back in relief. "Hallejulah. That's good. I've. always had a connection with things of the flying variety. A special connection. Of course, you're just kids, you probably wouldn't know what I'm talking about."  
  
"Mmmm. we know more than you might think, Mister Muldoon," said Angela with a happy tone.  
  
"But you're probably right," 2-T shrugged his shoulders.  
  
"We've got to go," Lilly looked to the door. "Nurses are coming to take you to the morgue, Mister Muldoon. I'd love to see their reaction, but I think we'd just be better off leaving."  
  
"Fine then, children, friendly alien scum," Muldoon winked. "Come and visit."  
  
Lilly ushered the group of six out of the window. As they left, the teenagers said their final goodbyes.  
  
Mike: "Don't worry, we'll visit."  
  
Angela: "Bye, Mister Muldoon!"  
  
2-T: "Don't worry about us too much, or you might die again."  
  
B-Bop: "See ya next when I see ya next, Muldoon!"  
  
Cedric: "Take care of yourself, Mister Muldoon!"  
  
Do-Wah: "Bye Muldoon! Make sure you tell us what the nurses do!"  
  
Lilly: "Look me up if you feel any side effects!"  
  
Muldoon smiled as the kids finally left. He cast a friendly look at Ronald. "Those are some model children, Ronald. The best of their generation, I think."  
  
"What about me, Mistah Muldoon?" Ronald asked, a bit jealous and really confused.  
  
"Well, Ronald, you're my intern," Muldoon said.  
  
*  
  
"The Martians really respect Muldoon," Lilly remarked as the BUMs got ready for bed.  
  
"Why'd you say that?" Angela asked, curious. Angela was always the last to leave the Martians; she always felt more at home with them than with her Dad and step. um. step-something. Since she hadn't married her dad yet, she couldn't be called a step-mother.  
  
"B-Bop held Muldoon's hand while he was talking to him," Lilly rattled off with authority. "Skin-to-skin contact for Martians is a very intense feeling. Only use when situations are dire."  
  
Angie still didn't understand. Lilly sighed. "Looks like this is a situation that is best explained through example. Remember when you got electrocuted by the robot guard in Muldoon's silo."  
  
"Yeah, how could I forget?!" Angela yelled, almost madly. "I almost died!"  
  
"Exactly!" Lilly yelled back, surprising Angie. "Do-Wah thought you were dead, and when he found out you were okay, he hugged you! Take in effect that the hugging to Martians is like kissing to humans!"  
  
"Woah." Ange looked away in shock. "I never knew that."  
  
Lilly flew down and grabbed Angela's gloved hand. "The sense of touch is a beautiful thing, and is taken much more seriously in most alien cultures than it is here, with humans. Remember that. It will be important later."  
  
"Okay," Angela pulled her hand out of Lilly's grip. "Wow. Hey, Lilly, what- "  
  
Angela turned to see her Higher Being friend, but she was gone.  
  
This story is dedicated to the memory of Robert Stack, voice and true heart of Stoat Muldoon.  
  
DONE! 


End file.
